It is always remarkable to walk into a place and feel that passionate, confident spark you can only find in the eyes of those who are starting something new, committed to doing it well, willing not to do more of the same, but to do it differently. To do ‘their thing’.
I had heard that something new and fresh was happening in the Algarve and I encountered that spark again when I was finally able to go to @austa_resta , meet Emma and David Campus - the adventurous English couple who opened the restaurant about a year ago - and taste the food of chef David Barata.
Austa seems to be filling a space not occupied by the high end haute cuisine (of which the Algarve has some excellent examples) or the traditional and/or family-run restaurants. More casual than the former, more sophisticated than the latter.
Driven by an attention to design, a respect for the territory, a commitment to the region’s small producers and unfussy, well-made food (how wonderful the rabanada with goose barnacles and papada, the squid from Quarteira, the pork presa with peach!), creativity to match, good wines and warm hospitality.
We know all too well how difficult it is to open a restaurant and to persevere.
You have to be somewhat crazy, a dreamer, unreasonable.
Fortunately, such people exist.